Cost-Per-Mille Calculator
Use our free tool to calculate CPM (Cost-Per-Mille) for your ad campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cost Per Mille?
Cost Per Mille (CPM) — also known as cost per thousand — is a marketing metric denoting the cost of 1,000 advertisement impressions on a web page. For instance, if a web publisher charges $3.00 CPM, an advertiser pays the publisher $3.00 per 1,000 impressions of its ad. In CPM, the "M" stands for "mille," which is Latin for "thousand." Put simply, Cost per Mille (CPM) is the cost paid per 1000 impressions of your digital ads. Google refers to it as viewable CPM — or vCPM — which means that at least 50% of your ad needs to display on screen for a minimum of one second. That, according to Google, qualifies as an impression. Regarding video CPM, your video needs to play for at least two seconds to register as an impression. You read that correctly — even clicking "Skip video" after three seconds counts as a view.In this display advertising model on Google, you don't pay for clicks on your ad — as with Cost-Per-Click (CPC) — instead, you only pay for the number of times it is displayed. In other words, if you're confident that your ad has the potential to drive click-throughs, you could stretch your ad budget further by opting for the CPM model.Bear in mind, that a thousand impressions can rack up quickly, meaning that the publisher will charge you every time every member of the audience views your ad. In other words, if an individual views your ad ten or twenty times in a day, each of those views, or impressions, accumulates toward your total CPM. It's conceivable that they could see your ad a hundred times or more and not once click on it.Cost per thousand (CPM) is the most prevalent protocol for pricing ads in digital marketing. The method focuses on impressions — ad views — representing the number of views or engagements for a particular digital advertisement. Advertisers pay website owners a pre-determined fee per one thousand ad impressions. Although an impression measures the number of times a site displays the ad — it does not measure whether viewers clicked the ad.
How do you calculate CPM?
Calculating CPM requires gathering a few essential data points.First, you need to quantify your ad impressions — or how many ad views. You also need to determine the ad's total cost.Then, you need to divide your total impressions, or ad views, by 1000. For example, 20,000 impressions divided by 1000 equals 20.Next, divide your ad's total cost (identified in the first step) by the number calculated by dividing ad views by 1000 (in the second step) to calculate your CPM value.Put simply, the formula to calculate CPM is ad cost divided by impressions, then multiplied by 1000.If you want to avoid doing the CPM yourself, use our online CPM calculator to do it for you.
Why should I calculate CPM?
By calculating CPM, you're taking an important step to better understand your digital marketing campaign regarding ad impressions performance. For example, if your CPM is higher on a certain ad platform, you could modify your ad campaign to use a platform where you'll have a lower CPM.Calculating CPM provides useful insight to help you make data-based decisions to adjust your marketing campaigns' course — a major benefit of using a CPM calculator.
What's the difference between CPM, CPC, and CPA?
CPM is one of many methods used to price website ads. Cost per click (CPC) — also known as pay-per-click (PPC) — is another standard model in which the advertiser pays each time a web visitor clicks the ad. Cost per acquisition (CPA) is another advertising framework in which the advertiser only pays when a consumer completes a purchase after clicking the ad.Some pricing models are more appropriate for certain types of ad campaigns than others. CPM is best suited for campaigns aimed at raising brand awareness or delivering targeted messages. For instance, placing an ad on a high-traffic website helps promote a company's brand or message — regardless of whether or not viewers click on the ad.
When is CPC better than CPM?
If your ad campaign CPM is too great to be worthwhile or aren't getting the desired results with CPM advertising, a CPC ad campaign (see how to calculate CPC) could be a better option.When using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you only pay for ads when people click on them. Therefore, if someone views your ad but isn't interested, you won't incur a charge. You've most likely encountered PPC ads when using search engines.For example, Google displays PPC ads at the top of the results and in the right sidebar next to the search results.
Are there challenges with CPM?
Yes, the most common challenge with CPM is ensuring accurate and reliable impressions tracking — advertisers often question whether the CPM model charges them fairly. Problems exist with replicate views counted for the same visitors or, worse, from automated bots, skewing the total views for a particular ad. Also, if an ad fails to load properly, the validity of its impressions are questionable. Advertising fraud can happen when a dishonest publisher uses automated scripts to inflate the number of total views.
Aside from tracking impressions, how else can you measure the performance of CPM?
Advertisers often measure the performance of a CPM campaign by its CTR. The click-through rate (CTR) measures the ratio of visitors who viewed and clicked the ad. For example, an advertisement that receives two clicks for every 100 impressions has a 2% CTR.